# Trying to find the easiest way to export custom maps

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/trying-to-find-the-easiest-way-to-export-custom-maps/6329>\
**Category:** Libraries\
**Created:** [December 5, 2018, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/trying-to-find-the-easiest-way-to-export-custom-maps/6329 "2018-12-05T15:29:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![quorumetrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c0e974/32.png) [@quorumetrix](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quorumetrix)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/trying-to-find-the-easiest-way-to-export-custom-maps/6329/1 "2018-12-05T15:29:52Z")

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Hi all,  
Long-time Processing user, but new to the forum.  
I’m wondering if someone can give me a suggestion of the best way to accomplish this.

I am visualizing a series of GPS coordinates, spanning a large part of the globe. For example, I will visualize my ancestors migration from Ireland to Canada.  
I’d like to be to export a map with place names and boundaries (or roads) centered on a given GPS coordinate, with a defined window (lat/long bounding box). I would like to be able to do this for every step along a trajectory, to create a film, so it needs to be automated.  
I’ve tried with Basemap in Processing and several Python packages, but I’ve just not found a way of getting this working.

Any help is much appreciated!

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**Author:** ![Kevin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/kevin/32/2297_2.png) [@Kevin](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Kevin)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/trying-to-find-the-easiest-way-to-export-custom-maps/6329/2 "2018-12-05T19:52:49Z")

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Sounds like a cool project. Which part of this are you stuck on? What did you try with Basemap, and what didn’t work about it?

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**Author:** ![quorumetrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c0e974/32.png) [@quorumetrix](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quorumetrix)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/trying-to-find-the-easiest-way-to-export-custom-maps/6329/3 "2018-12-06T03:04:35Z")

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I’m stuck on actually controlling the bounds and zoom of the map.  
I was mistaken in my post, Basemap is the python package I tried, I meant geoMap from gicentre.  
I’ve read through all the documentation from [https://www.gicentre.net/geomap/using/](https://www.gicentre.net/geomap/using/) and tried each of the examples from the package.  
What I would like to be able to do is return a portion of a map using the bounding box coordinates, something as close to this as possible:

size(1000,1000);  
drawMap(minLongitude, minLatitude, maxLongitude, maxLatitude);

Does anyone know a Processing package that can do this (or another scriptable solution)?

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**Author:** ![Kevin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/kevin/32/2297_2.png) [@Kevin](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Kevin)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/trying-to-find-the-easiest-way-to-export-custom-maps/6329/4 "2018-12-06T17:35:58Z")

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You might look into using [Unfolding Maps](http://unfoldingmaps.org/).

Googling “java openstreetmap” returns a ton of promising results.

You could also look into using Google’s JavaScript maps API.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![quorumetrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c0e974/32.png) [@quorumetrix](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quorumetrix)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 9:45pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/trying-to-find-the-easiest-way-to-export-custom-maps/6329/5 "2018-12-06T21:45:22Z")

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Cool, thanks for the tips!